Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to carabiners. More particularly, some implementations of the present invention relate to systems and methods for providing a carabiner having two enclosures that are both selectively openable and closable with a single gate.
Background and Related Art
For over a hundred years, carabiners have been a valuable tool in many rope-intensive activities. Indeed, carabiners have become mainstays in several activities, such as climbing, rappelling, spelunking, sailing, rope rescue, construction, arboriculture, window washing, whitewater rescue, industrial rope work, and a wide variety of activities that involve using one or more carabiners to retain a rope in one more desired locations with respect to a user.
In addition to their utility with rope-intensive activities, carabiners have been, and are, regularly used to rapidly connect two or more items together and to rapidly disconnect such items from each other. For instance, carabiners are regularly used to selectively connect items (such as keys, keychains, water bottles, phones, tools, flashlights, multi-tools, accessories, and/or other items) to one or more other objects (such as a belt, belt loop, bag, backpack, zipper, harness, rope, MOLLE looping, cord, strap, attachment surface, jacket, and/or one or more other objects).
While the specific characteristics and components of carabiners can vary greatly, carabiners often comprise a metal loop with a spring-loaded gate that is configured to move to open and close the loop. Accordingly, carabiners are regularly operated by opening the gate to allow objects (such as a rope, strap, key ring, binding, hook, washer, etc.) to pass into and/or be removed from the loop.
Although carabiners may provide a variety of benefits, conventional carabiners are not necessarily without their shortcomings. In some examples of shortcomings that can be associated with conventional carabiners, some carabiners are relatively difficult to use and some are prone to allow ropes (or other objects) to undesirably slide between a first end (sometimes called a basket) and a second end (sometimes called a crotch) of such carabiners.
Thus, while a variety of carabiners currently exist, challenges still exist, including those listed above. Accordingly, it would be an improvement in the art to augment or even replace current techniques with other techniques.